Big Red Rage provides big red answers

Not too long ago, Paulie Preschool fulfilled his parental duty and took his turn reading to his daughter’s class during story time.

Thursday night, during the Big Red Rage radio show on Arizona Sports 620, it was my turn to listen.

And, no doubt, we had some solid inside stories spun by both Arizona Cardinals GM Steve Keim and receiver Michael Floyd.

In fact, Floyd shared a meeting he had with Bruce Arians just a few hours before show time.

“Coach Arians comes up to me and he told me to come up to his office and he asked me just basically the question – ‘how great do I wanna be.'” Floyd reiterated.

Ron Wolfley followed by asking the 13th pick overall in the 2012 NFL Draft the same question — “how great DO you want to be?”

“I think everyone’s dream, well, mine personally, is to be a Hall of Fame wide receiver. And I’ll do anything for that,” Floyd said to applause from the crowd at Majerle’s Sports Grill.

With a full season now under his belt, I asked Floyd to name the best cornerback he faced all season.

“I would say Antonio Cromartie from the Jets. Both Seattle corners are pretty good,” Floyd answered.
Then, Wolf asked him a rhetorical question of sorts, “Sherman does a lot of talking out there, doesn’t he?” Floyd nodded immediately and added, “A lot of talking, yeah.”

Of course, Floyd will be a main target of new quarterback Carson Palmer. What sort of first impression did the veteran QB make with GM Steve Keim?

“We took him to dinner,” Keim shared about Palmer’s visit to Arizona before the trade. “After that, we were going to try and get him over to the facilities. Well, he calls me at 6:15 in the morning and he’s begging me to come pick him up at the hotel so he can go watch tape. I mean, for a 33-year-old quarterback who’s played nine years in the league, I love that passion.”

As for potential draft picks who might be protecting Palmer along the Cards offensive line, I asked Keim if the upcoming draft is indeed as loaded with offensive line prospects as we’ve been hearing.

“We finished talking about most of the offensive lineman today and it is a good group,” Keim said. “Not only from top to bottom, there are guys who are going to go in the first round that I think are going to have tremendous success. And I think there are going to be guys you can find in round three through six who are going to be good quality NFL starters.”

Speaking of offensive lineman, as we wrapped up our interview with Keim, I asked the Cards GM for a “Breakout Player” nominee here in 2013? Ssshhh. But after a few moments of deliberation, Keim says to keep an eye on right tackle Bobby Massie.